Willett emerged from the ashes of Spieth's collapse to claim his first major title.Getty Images

Danny Willett capitalised on Jordan Spieth's remarkable collapse on the back nine to become the first English winner of the Masters for 20 years following a stunning final round at Augusta. The defending champion led by five shots at the turn but a quadruple bogey on the 13th where he found the water twice handed the green jacket and a maiden major title to the Sheffield-born Willett.

The 28-year-old, who became a father last week, produced an error-free round of 67 to finish on five-under, three shots clear of Spieth who was unable to produce consecutive birdies from the final two holes to force a play-off. Willett becomes just the second English golfer, alongside Nick Faldo in 1996, to win the opening major of the year, the first to hail from Europe since Jose Maria Olazabal in 1999 and third from British shores.

Willett said: "It has been crazy. You can't really describe the emotions, the feelings. We all go out there to try and play good golf and at the end of the day someone has to win the golf tournament and fortunately today it was my day.

"It was tough [chasing Spieth]. Every time we seemed to make ground Jordan seemed to be pulling ahead and we were just trying to dig in and make birdies after birdies. I thought we had to get to six or seven [under par] and I look at the leaderboard and he is already at seven. It was a very surreal day when you look back at the ebbs and flows and I am just fortunate the shots we hit were correct."

"It's tough, it's really tough," explained Spieth, the 2015 winners who finished as a runner-up for a second time. "The ball flight [at the 12th]is a ball flight that has come up quite a bit for me at par three this week. I put a bad swing on it at the time. I probably should gone back to the drop zone where we knew the yardage but it was hard for me to commit over by the 13th hole.

"Just a lack of discipline going into that bunker coming off the back of two bogies instead of recognising that I was still leading the Masters by two golf shots.

"I am pretty sure I'll be disappointed with this one. We still have the confidence we are a closing team, we can close. I have no doubt about that ability. It was a very tough 30 minutes for me that hopefully I never experience again.

Fellow Englishman - one of three in the top four - Lee Westwood, played with Willett during the fourth round and briefly flirted with the lead before finishing tied for second on two-under alongside Spieth. Paul Casey set the clubhouse lead early on at one-under to tie for fifth alongside American pair J.B Holmes and Dustin Johnson.

Twenty-one-year-old Matthew Fitzpatrick was among three players on level par for the tournament, with Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen and Hideki Matsuyama of Japan, while world number one Jason Day was a further shot back on one-over. Rory McIlroy was unable to stage a last assault on completing career grand slam with a 71 to end the week one-over. A similar fate befell former US Open champion Justin Rose, who completed the top 10 along with Daniel Berger and Brandt Snedeker.